LETTER: 'Family values' platform is strangely silent

Published: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 at 08:56 PM.

As an atheist living in Gastonia, I must note my extreme pleasure at the considerable silence from Mitt Romney regarding so-called “family values” this election cycle.

It is, indeed, quite wonderful to see issues of substance and relevance, such as the economy (even if by necessity), covered by a candidate on the right, especially in a town where there is a higher average of firearms possessed per capita than IQ points. It seems like the right has learned from 2004 that it can no longer fully capitalize on an almost-universal partisan disdain for LGBTQ folks if it hopes to capture those highly-enamored “undecided voters,” who often tend to be more moderate-to-liberal in political ideology.

Nor have we heard anything substantial, uttered publicly to a national audience, regarding abortion. And given Ol’ Mittens’ questionable consistency in the pro-life department, this is probably for his political best.

No, friends. This election is all about money. For the right, this election rides on the tremendous cost of so-called “Obamacare” (with a careful lack of mention of the insurance mandate). It hinges not on your jeopardized right to own an AR-15 but on the declining balance in your 401(k). It hangs not on the rising public acceptance of homosexuality but on the rising debt ceiling.

It seems that this election is driven by issues of social security, not sexuality; investing over “intelligent design”; and, finally, FINALLY— finance over the fetus. And for me and countless others in this intellectual wasteland known as Gastonia, this is a welcome change of political pace, as short-lived as it will surely prove to be, given religion’s historical reign over reason, especially in the realm of the American political discourse.

This welcome change demonstrates to me, and others, just how shallow and disposable the political tools of social issues are when it comes to the pocketbook of the American public. We see quite transparently the extent to which these “family values” have served as a smokescreen for the right to advance an agenda committed to the systematic dismantling of your average, hardworking American family.

Through resistance to “Obamacare,” many voters demonstrate the extent to which businesses value a healthy bottom-line over a healthy worker who helps them get there. We are presented with the perceived dangers of tax breaks on those making over $200,000 per year instead of the dangers of the broken backs of middle-class families who would shoulder this burden.

As an atheist living in Gastonia, I must note my extreme pleasure at the considerable silence from Mitt Romney regarding so-called “family values” this election cycle.

It is, indeed, quite wonderful to see issues of substance and relevance, such as the economy (even if by necessity), covered by a candidate on the right, especially in a town where there is a higher average of firearms possessed per capita than IQ points. It seems like the right has learned from 2004 that it can no longer fully capitalize on an almost-universal partisan disdain for LGBTQ folks if it hopes to capture those highly-enamored “undecided voters,” who often tend to be more moderate-to-liberal in political ideology.

Nor have we heard anything substantial, uttered publicly to a national audience, regarding abortion. And given Ol’ Mittens’ questionable consistency in the pro-life department, this is probably for his political best.

No, friends. This election is all about money. For the right, this election rides on the tremendous cost of so-called “Obamacare” (with a careful lack of mention of the insurance mandate). It hinges not on your jeopardized right to own an AR-15 but on the declining balance in your 401(k). It hangs not on the rising public acceptance of homosexuality but on the rising debt ceiling.

It seems that this election is driven by issues of social security, not sexuality; investing over “intelligent design”; and, finally, FINALLY— finance over the fetus. And for me and countless others in this intellectual wasteland known as Gastonia, this is a welcome change of political pace, as short-lived as it will surely prove to be, given religion’s historical reign over reason, especially in the realm of the American political discourse.

This welcome change demonstrates to me, and others, just how shallow and disposable the political tools of social issues are when it comes to the pocketbook of the American public. We see quite transparently the extent to which these “family values” have served as a smokescreen for the right to advance an agenda committed to the systematic dismantling of your average, hardworking American family.

Through resistance to “Obamacare,” many voters demonstrate the extent to which businesses value a healthy bottom-line over a healthy worker who helps them get there. We are presented with the perceived dangers of tax breaks on those making over $200,000 per year instead of the dangers of the broken backs of middle-class families who would shoulder this burden.

The economy is a serious issue that needs to be addressed, undoubtedly. Yet in the right’s attempt to sway undecided voters, it has revealed the true, disposable value of a “family values” platform of social conservatism and has adjusted that value to reflect a recent, political cost-benefit analysis when it comes to their own net worth. What an ironic, yet beautiful, pity.